


Appetite

by still_lycoris



Category: The Night Manager (TV)
Genre: First Time, M/M, Mildly Dubious Consent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-17
Updated: 2016-03-17
Packaged: 2018-05-27 08:06:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6276325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/still_lycoris/pseuds/still_lycoris
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Roper takes Jonathan back to his hotel room. Slight AU of episode 4.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Appetite

Pine had thought this couldn’t get any stranger.

He probably should have known better than to think that.

_“So you don’t drink. You don’t screw. I’m not sure I trust a man with no appetites.”_

_“Well, er … I have appetites. They’re just … very focused.”_

And Roper had looked at him then, a long up-and-down look and Pine had looked back and he could probably still have backed out of it. Still have laughed it off, still have found some way to wriggle out of this and go to his own room and for them both to forget it.

But he hadn’t done that. He’d carried on looking at Roper and Roper had smiled that smile of his, the slowly, steady smile.

“Well. Shall we test that out?”

They went back to his hotel room in silence. Roper unlocked the door and politely gestured for him to walk inside first. The room was basically the same as his own, large, impressive, the lap of luxury paid for with poison. Roper followed him in and the door closed with a strangely loud click that seemed to echo. He didn’t bother to turn on the lights and they stood in the dark, facing each other.

“Well,” Roper said, still with that note of joviality he almost always seemed to have. “Clothes off then.”

He stripped neatly, efficiently, not trying to make it alluring or attractive. Just practically, while Roper watched him do it. Shirt, then shoes and socks, trousers, underwear. He didn’t try to cover himself up once he was naked. Just stood there, hands loose at his sides, staring at Roper as he did. In the dark, it was hard to see, but he was fairly certain that Roper was smiling at him.

“On the bed.”

He obeyed, sitting down neatly. Roper finally moved, walking towards him, standing over him for a moment, his head very slightly on one side. Then he reached out and put his hand very lightly on Pine’s chest. His fingers were warm, pleasantly so. 

“You can still back out you know,” he said, still quite jovial. “No hard feelings.”

Pine wondered if that was the truth. If Roper would really just let him go if he suddenly shrugged and said that he didn’t want this. If he’d just laugh it off as though it had all been a game. Probably. Nothing to gain by being offended. Probably Roper would just laugh at him, make a comment that was just on the side of teasing rather than barbed. File it away in his mind as something that could be used or not, as he chose.

He didn’t move. He stared at Roper with his chin up and Roper stared back and grinned _that_ grin, then leaned forward and kissed him.

It was a firm, hard kiss, the kiss of someone who knew exactly what they wanted, exactly how they would get it. The kind of kiss you could expect from a man like Roper. The kind of kiss where you either kissed back just as hard or were devoured by it, swallowed up, absorbed.

So he kissed back, fierce and passionate and determined. He reached up to grip the powerful shoulders, pushed himself against the unyielding, still-clothed body. He pressed his hand into Roper’s hair, ran it down to the back of the other man’s neck to tangle in the shirt collar.

“Have you done this before?” Roper asked, all polite and enquiring, as though he hadn’t been exchanging breath-stealing kisses only a moment before.

“No.”

Was that the right answer? Ought he have lied, pretended to be confident, secure, to have had numerous men in his bed? No, better to be truthful here. If he fumbled, if his inexperience became plain, that might cause questions, too many questions. Besides, although he doubted Roper would show it, there was a possibility that Roper would be flattered by the comment. 

Roper simply nodded in answer to the question. No promises to be gentle, no promises to be anything other than himself. Pine would have expected nothing else from the man.

He would have _wanted_ nothing else …

Roper moved him calmly, pushing him down onto the bed so he was flat on his back. He finally unfastened his trousers – although made no attempt to remove his shirt – and stepped out of them before taking something out of a drawer and returning, kneeling on the bed in front of Pine.

“Legs up,” he said, putting his hands on Pine’s thighs. They were hot now, almost too hot and Pine must have made a sound of some sort because Roper patted him and said “Easy now.” in a way that was almost kindly. He stroked again, then calmly positioned Pine’s legs over his shoulders. It was uncomfortable but not painful.

“Relax a little. I’m not going to hurt you.”

Relax? When was the last time he had been relaxed? Was it even possible to relax any more? Better not to think about that, not right now, not think about anything that might make this any stranger than it already was … and it was pretty strange

Roper wasn’t gentle with preparation, despite his reassurance that it wouldn’t hurt. His fingers were slick and hard and they went deep, deeper than Pine had ever imagined (not that he had imagined, not for a moment, of course) They were skilled too, moving inside him and oh, oh fuck, that actually felt good and he found himself squirming, pushing and Roper laughed.

“Never let a girl put her fingers up there before? You should.”

No, he never had. There were all sorts of things he’d never done before that he was doing now. All sorts of things … thoughts … feelings … not wise, not wise to think about some of this, not now, not ever …

Roper withdrew his fingers and Pine closed his eyes, knowing what was coming next and it was almost frightening to realise that he _wanted_ it, that his heart was beating fast with excitement, that the arousal burning in him was deep and real and hot …

“Don’t tense up now,” Roper ordered. His fingers stroked down Pine’s stomach and he couldn’t stop himself moaning as the fingers didn’t quite touch his erection. He wanted. He _wanted …_

Roper pushed into him and Pine cried out, not sure if it was from the ache of it or something else. He clutched at the sheets, then at Roper’s long arms, crushing the cloth that still covered them, aware that the sounds coming out of his mouth were helpless, desperate moans that he couldn’t stop, that he didn’t want to stop but it didn’t matter too much because Roper was finally making sounds too; quiet gasping ones as he thrust quicker and harder and stared down into Pine’s face, his sweat dripping onto Pine’s skin. He stared down at Pine and all Pine could do was stare back, back at those shadowed eyes and gasp with need and push his hips forward to meet Roper’s thrusts ....

It was over very suddenly and he couldn’t have even said what pushed him over the edge, just that suddenly he was arching and he was coming but it was all right because he could feel Roper coming too, filling him up and without meaning to, he cried out something wild and incoherent and then everything was silent and still and they were just staring at each other in the dark.

Roper pulled out of him and Pine slowly sat up, trying not to show any discomfort, even though he had pins and needles in his legs and an ache inside that he thought would take a while to go away. Roper looked at him and it was instinct, pure instinct that made him lean forward and kiss Roper again; hard and fierce and oh, so much want that he thought he could burn with it.

It was Roper, of course, who finished the kiss, who gently pushed him back.

“Go take a bath,” he said in a friendly way. “It’ll ease the ache.”

It was dismissal and Pine accepted it, gathering his clothes politely. They didn’t discuss the event or suggest doing it again, of course. Roper simply watched him and Pine knew he was smiling in the dark.

Just like he always did.


End file.
